Scenes to be performed

All NEH Summer Scholars will participate in different groups to perform Plautus, Pseudolus 133-234 , during which the pimp Ballio prepares his slaves for his birthday on the fol­lowing day. He com­plains that they are lazy, eat too much, and are immune to beatings (whip­wast­ers, he calls them), then demands that each of them give him a gift, under threat of pun­ish­ment. As he talks (sings), he is striking about with a whip. Eaves­drop­­ping are young Calido­r­us, in love with one of Ballio’s slave-pro­sti­tutes, and his clever slave Pseudo­lus (=Tricky). As Ballio threat­ens the women with dis­figur­ing treatment, Pseu­dolus grows ang­rier, until he vows to trick the pimp out of the girl and to humiliate him.

In addition, before the beginning of the NEH Institute, NEH Summer Scholars will rank each of the following scenes in order of preference. From these lists the directors will create groups to perform the scenes.

Plautus, Bacchides 1116-1211: in the play’s final scene, two courtesans entrance and fool two old men, who want to get back money spent by their sons. A lively scene of music and dance, with physical dynamics, audience asides, and humor.

Plautus, Casina 353-423: a slapstick scene in which a man and his wife, fighting for control of a female servant, use male slaves as surrogates, having them draw lots and strike each other. The slaves dislike each other and are motivated by competition.

Plautus, Mercator 691-802: a cook contributes to comic confusion as a wife thinks her husband has brought a prostitute into their home. Scenes with hired cooks were very amusing to ancient audiences but somewhat bemusing to moderns; this scene con­tains much escalation of confusion and humor.

Plautus, Truculentus 775-854: a young man who has gotten a young woman pregnant eavesdrops as her father interrogates two female slaves who helped cover up the pregnancy. A complex and more subdued scene, with divided action.

Together these scenes offer much that is most fun about Roman comedy: witty jokes, great hu­mor, audience-pleasing dramatic irony, and physical comedy. Several also in­clude chal­lenges in translation, acting, and staging, as well as discomfiting so­cial elements: slave-torture, ex­ploita­tion of social subor­dinates, reports of rape, in­ap­pro­pri­ate sexual desire in powerful old men, the rude treat­ment of unhappy wives by un­pleasant husbands. To evade these elements is to censor and sani­tize not only Ro­man come­dy but Rome itself. What we learn when we think about per­form­ance of the dis­turbing ma­te­rials is how the Roman audiences might have responded—a cru­cial point for understand­ing Ro­man culture. This NEH In­stitute will help NEH Summer Scholars overcome the bar­riers of these dif­ficult ma­te­rials, so they can teach and stage the plays more confidently, in both Latin and Eng­lish.Participants will experi­ment, in groups, with the effects of different choices in translation; the inclusion of music and song; male act­ors in female roles; masks and ancient cos­tumes; modern costumes; and more.